America’s Right-Wing Fringe (Tea Party and Far Right Wing): Part 1

It is silly season in American politics, so we have to hear endless harangues by America’s right-wingers about their unsupportable claims about practically everything. This is because our TV networks feel somehow compelled to give them equal time to speak, even though they don’t speak for all that many Americans.

The Tea Party Movement is a prime example. They believe in the 10 main points of the so-called “Contract from America.” Notice the subtle use of the word “from” rather than “for” or “with,” since the citizens with lesser incomes are exactly the people their policies will be “from.”

Here is my commentary on their 10 points:

1. They want a “single rate tax system.” That would be something like Social Security in the United States, I suppose. Americans pay 6.2% of their taxable income to Social Security up to $106,800, and their employers pay a matching sum. Who does this benefit? Well, let’s see: If I earn less than the $106,800, I pay 6.2%. If I earned much more, let’s say $250,000, I would be paying 2.64% , of my income. If I earned $1 million for the year, I would be paying 0.6 % of my income in taxes. That’s fair, isn’t it! Let’s make the very wealthy pay almost nothing in taxes, while the rest of us have to pay 6.2%. This is a movement I could join, if I earned over $106,800, which I don’t, thanks to the venal and corrupt behaviors of the Wall Street fat cats, who paid themselves $100 million bonuses, rather than leave that money for their stockholders! Who needs that much money for income? How many yachts can you buy, or at least use?

It’s the rich folks and the American right wing who keep telling us that we won’t have enough to cover Social Security when we get older, because of the post-World War II “Baby Boom,” but that is ridiculous. First of all, when the “Baby Boom” came along, the population of the United States was 150.7 million, according the the U.S. Census 1950. It was 280.4 million in the 2000 U.S. Census. Everyone believes it is approaching 310 million for the 2010 U.S. Census, which is not yet published. The point of this is that, while there were a lot of people born during that “Baby Boom” generation, there are the Social Security taxes of almost twice as many people to cover these “strains” on Social Security in the out years.

I want to know who these opinion leaders are, who are using smoke and mirrors to convince those of us with incomes under $106,800 that they should not be taxed. One article I read said if we raised the tax up to the first $150,000, 60% of the problem would be solved. What if we made it on all of one’s income? That wouldn’t hurt anyone with incomes under $106,800, but it would be a mosquito bite to the fat cats! They’ve gotten the Democrats in the Senate totally off balance, because they have lower income Americans thinking its their taxes that will be raised, when the fact is that it’s the rich folks, who had the tax cut that caused a 3X increase in our national debt during the Bush years, who are actually going to be affected.

It turns out that I have more to say about this than I thought, and I’m only on point #1 of 10, and that’s just in the “Contract from America.” I’m going to call this Part 1, and give the people who are convinced of this ideology a chance to talk in the comments below. Bring it on!

2 Responses to America’s Right-Wing Fringe (Tea Party and Far Right Wing): Part 1

Why are you connecting the Tea Party with Contract from America? You said that “They [The Tea Party] believe in the 10 main points of the so-called “Contract from America.” How exactly can you support that statement? You’re assuming that the Tea Party is some sort of national organization with representatives, etc. You can’t just lump every person that goes to Tea Parties or supports their driving idea–fiscal responsibility–into the same “Contract From America” group. What do you have to back the idea that the Tea Party as a whole supports the Contract From America up?

Also, calling the Tea Party “America’s Lunatic Fringe” is sort of reaching–have you ever been to a Tea Party? It’s almost all old people in lawn chairs and 40 year old moms waving American flags who don’t want the government spending money they don’t have. While there are a few nuts in every movement, I’d hardly call that lunatic fringe material, especially when 1 out of 5 Americans support the movement: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20016526-5…

If you had taken the trouble of connecting to my link, you would have had your answer. My information comes from the Wikipedia entry for “Tea Party movement.” If their information is not accurate, I suggest you take it up with Wikipedia. I believe you could make the changes yourself. All you have to do is look at the contents for the entry, and find where it says this.

Honestly, I had a difficult time figuring our what the Tea Party stands for beyond that entry. Several of the links I went to had closed accounts requiring sign ups to find out what the “movement” stands for at all. What’s the secret? I’ll bet it is because the political puppet masters want to sell the followers symbols rather than real deals. They’re saying to themselves, “Let’s get a few slogans out there that sound good, and we’ll get a lot of followers.” Then they’ll belly up to the trough again, and it’s people with incomes under $106,800 per year who have to pay to carry all of the fat cats.

Your point is well taken about the use of the term “lunatic,” which was intended as a term of art rather than a diagnosis. Nonetheless, in the interests of fairness, I have replaced it with “Right-Wing.” That serves my purposes as well. Thanks for pointing out your heartburn with the use of the term.

By the way, if you do find something that succinctly states the actual positions of the Tea Party movement, I welcome you to publish them here. Let’s get them out there so that you folks don’t have to continue to rely on the symbolic language used by Fox News and the other right-wing media outlets and political advertisements. You might as well know in detail what you’re supporting, right?

Thank you for your response! By airing our differences we will gradually hammer out what is best for America. That’s the American Way!